Today I’m going to divide the entire population into two separate groups. Using the image of travelers in a car, I’m going to call one group the Drivers and the other group the Passengers.

The drivers are all the people who predominately believe they control things that happen to them in life. I call them the drivers because they strongly feel that they have their hands firmly on the steering wheel and are in control of the direction their lives take. They believe their fates are determined by things like effort, focus, persistence and free-will, and that they’re fundamentally responsible for the things that happen to them along the highway of life.

The passengers, on the other hand, predominately believe they’re not in control their lives. I call them passengers because like those who sit in the backseat of a car, they believe they don’t have control over the direction they go; they can only travel where the vehicle takes them. As opposed to drivers, who tie their fate to self-determination and hard work, passengers tend to believe their fate is shaped more by things such as genetics, fate and serendipity.

The basic concept behind this notion was first put forth by a psychologist in the 1960s named Julian Rotter. He developed a theory around these two types of people called “Locus of Control.” Its basic premise is that some people think their lives are more influenced by external factors (the passengers), while some believe their lives are more influenced by internal factors (the drivers). As a result, Rotter claimed that you either operated with an Internal Locus of Control or an External Locus of Control.

Rotter even developed a test to determine which orientation you operated under. Other psychologists have since created many tests to measure this orientation too – a simple one of which you can find right here. Here are a few sample true/false questions from that survey:

I usually get what I want in life. T/F

I do not really believe in luck or chance. T/F

I usually convince others to do things my way. T/F

The success I have is largely a matter of chance. T/F

Persistence and hard work usually lead to success. T/F

I should mention that this type of test (true/false) is called a “forced choice” test. As opposed to other types of tests, these can cause the test taker some angst. That’s because a forced choice test doesn’t allow for any wiggle room because it eliminates uncommitted choices like “don’t know” or “neutral.” It forces you to make a selection even though you have some reservations.

The basic hypothesis is that you fundamentally operate under one of two general assumptions about your role in shaping your life: You either basically believe that things that happen to you are under your internal control, or that they’re being controlled externally by a variety of outside forces.

Of course, I’m talking in extremes to make my point. The reality is that we all tend to fluctuate, depending on the situation, from an internal and external sense of control. However, even though each approach has its pros and cons, we each do lean heavily in one direction or the other.

So how about you? Are you a driver or a passenger in the vehicle of life?